The Blue Devils were caught sleeping early and trailed by six goals after the first period. But the hosts made an unbelievable comeback and led by two goals in the fourth quarter, before the Warriors recaptured the momentum and Cam Blondin netted the game-winning tally with 21 seconds left to down Leominster, 10-9, at sunny Doyle Field.

"We just can't dig a hole where we're down 6-nothing," Davis said. "It really cost us today. It takes a whole lot of energy to come back from down six goals and I think we kind of let down at the end.

"We passed them for a little while, but we've got to finish games. We have to learn how to start games and how to finish them. We start those lessons today, unfortunately."

Leominster (1-3) has now lost three straight, while the Warriors (2-4) snapped their four-game losing skid.

"We're not a pretty team by any means, but they won't stop playing. They'll keep working and keep working," said Worcester coach Harry Jones, a former Syracuse University lax player from 2001-02.

Worcester certainly did fight back. After trailing 9-7 with 7:45 left in the fourth quarter, the Warriors tied it up after back-to-back goals by Matt Genkas and Nebeel Tokatli. Tokatli's game-tying tally came with 1:19 left.

Leominster called a timeout with 1:11 left, but were whistled for a procedure penalty (mouth piece), prompting the ball to go right back to Worcester.

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"We had a couple of stupid penalties -- mouth pieces and stuff like that -- and that just can't happen," Davis said. "When you play in close games, that stuff is always going to come back and bite you and it did. We're going to have to let this hurt for a little bit and try and come back Saturday a little bit better.

"We obviously won the next three quarters, but we didn't finish very well."

The Warriors cashed in on Leominster's penalty, as Blondin trickled in a shot past Leominster goalie Alex Brown on the short-side post with 21 seconds left for the winner.

"Cam's been fighting sickness all week and he's been limited at practice because he had the flu," Jones said. "They are all resilient, and I ask them to be."

Leominster trailed 7-3 at the half, but it continued to dominate in the third quarter, outscoring the visitors, 5-0, for an 8-7 lead after three quarters.

Leominster spread out its third-quarter scoring as Tyler Cuddahy, Kenny Delgado, Andrew Bouchard, Justin Burke and Cam Cordio all sizzled the back of the net.

Burke, a long-stick defender, tied it up with a blast from the point, while attack Cordio gave Leominster its first lead with a rifle shot after the ball was cycled nicely around the perimeter.

"We went away from what we were doing," Jones said. "We gave up three uncontested goals that really sparked them. You give a team any confidence, they'll play harder and that's what they did."

After falling behind 6-0 after the first 12 minutes, Leominster found its groove after a stern lecture from Davis.

Leominster started peppering the net, but Worcester goalie Sean Moran stood strong for a while until Cuddahy, Cordio and Bouchard each scored to cut the deficit to 6-3.

"We started playing like we can play," Davis said. "When we were playing poorly, that's just not good enough. That's what cost us the game."

It was all Worcester early, as Jahmel Bryan scored three goals, while James Bowler added two and Rob Nay had another in an impressive 6-0 advantage after one quarter of play.

"It looked pretty in hand in the first half and we were playing pretty well - probably the best the offense has played all year," Jones said.

Leominster made its defensive adjustment, as Keenan Vella marked Bryan and David Benham shadowed Bowler.

The moves worked to perfection, as Bryan and Bowler were held goal-less the rest of the way, and Leominster's offense took command thanks to the solid all-around play of the defense and goalie Brown who flustered and shut down Worcester.

"We left our goalie out to dry and it should have been worse, to be honest, but our goalie was the only reason we hung in as long as we did," Davis said. "Alex played great today. He gave us everything he had."

Bouchard finished the game with three goals, while Cordio and Cuddahy each had two goals for Leominster.

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